blender python module do not work in OSX
I had this exact same issue on Windows.  I had followed the instructions on:

https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Ideasman42/BlenderAsPyModule

I would not have been successful without the help from this page.  But I did find some things that were not quite correct or up to date.

After searching for solutions without success (where I found your post), I decided to inspect the C source code.   The problem was with the line:

xcopy /E bin\2.77 C:\Python35\

Blender expects the files to be in a folder with the version number.  But this line does not do this.  The final version of my update script based on this page was:

REM Script to make the bpy build a python module.  Prior to running this, go in the blender folder and
REM enter "make bpy"
REM See https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Ideasman42/BlenderAsPyModule

copy build_windows_Bpy_x64_vc12_Release\bin\Release\bpy.pyd E:\Python35\Lib\site-packages\
copy build_windows_Bpy_x64_vc12_Release\bin\Release\*.dll E:\Python35\Lib\site-packages\
del E:\Python35\Lib\site-packages\python35.dll
xcopy /E/I build_windows_Bpy_x64_vc12_Release\bin\Release\2.78 E:\Python35\2.78

pause


After doing this, the examples worked perfectly.  This script is for windows and is based on the unique locations I put both Blender's source and Python, but I would think you may be able to figure out your issue from this.

By the way, the steps on this page that indicated to build with:

WITH_PYTHON_INSTALL=OFF
WITH_PLAYER=OFF
WITH_PYTHON_MODULE=ON

appear to no longer be manually required as you could simply type "make bpy" and this takes care of it.

I hope this helps.